


Summer

by angellwings



Series: Summer-time [1]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Family, Fourth of July, Friendship, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 10:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4218330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it all started with an otp tumblr prompt about which person would sneak their kid cookies. Add that to late tumbling and you get a story that only adds to the Jassandra Baby!Fever we seem to have been experiencing. So here, friends, is the story of Jassandra's creation, cookies, and Ezekiel Jones. With a little Jenkins thrown in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Imagination_Parade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagination_Parade/gifts), [Struckk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Struckk/gifts), [justlook3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justlook3/gifts).



> I believe you’ll all know where her name (also my tumblr url) came from. *wink wink* Also, as July 4th is coming up for those of us from the States that’s the day I set it on! Enjoy!
> 
> *AHEM* HERE WE GO…  
> Happy reading!  
> angellwings

Ezekiel watched Jenkins and Cassandra as they scooped cookies off the cookie sheet and moved them to a platter. He’d thought he’d gotten used to seeing something so domestic over the years but he always thought wrong. He couldn’t resist stopping to watch a normal activity. It held the same interest for him as a good heist at this point. It was rare and surprisingly enjoyable to have a quiet unexciting moment in the Annex.

 “Why are we baking these again?” Ezekiel asked.

 Jenkins quirked a brow at him with a frown. “ _We,_ you say?”

Cassandra chuckled and rolled her eyes. “All you’ve done is watch _us_ bake.”

“Every sport needs a spectator,” He said with a grin. He smirked at Jenkins as he wiped his hands on a frilly red, white, and blue apron. “Nice apron, by the way. Might be better than the Christmas one.”

Jenkins looked sheepish for a moment before he left to take the cookie sheet to the sink. He called back to them over his shoulder, “I have no idea where it came from.”

“Sure you don’t, Grandpa,” Ezekiel said with a chuckle.

“Mommy, these need more sprinkles!” A small voice yelled from the end of the kitchen table. A tiny fair skinned hand suddenly threw blue sugar sprinkles at the unbaked tray of cookie with obvious glee. The little girl with the head of red curls dove her hand back into the tub of sprinkles and threw another handful with a loud giggle. “Is that better?”

Cassandra laughed warmly and walked around the table to observe her daughter’s handy work. The five year old stood in the chair next to her and watched her mother’s expression closely.

“Hmmm,” Cassandra said with an exaggerated thoughtful expression. “Very beautiful, but I do think they’re missing one thing.”

“What?” The little girl asked in an excited whisper.

“Stars!” Cassandra exclaimed as she picked up a tub of star shaped candy sprinkles and opened them. She held the tub out toward her daughter expectantly.

“Yay!” She yelled as she dug both hands into the sprinkles and pulled out two fistfuls of them.

Jenkins turned with a grimace as she threw the sprinkles into the air like confetti.

“Ms. Summer,” Jenkins said with a sigh. “Must you? I just swept up the last batch of sprinkles. Have you gotten _any_ on the cookies?”

“Come see, Mr. Jenkins!” Summer yelled excitedly as she hopped off the chair and ran to him.

Ezekiel watched the girl’s bouncy run as she grabbed Jenkins hand and dragged him to the table to observe her hard work.

“I see, well, you did succeed at decorating them miraculously,” Jenkins said as he tried not to grin. “The stars are a very wonderful addition.”

“Those were mommy’s idea!”

“What was mommy’s idea?” Stone asked as he entered the kitchen with a small white towel slung over his shoulder.

“Putting stars on the cookies!” Summer repeated. Again she hopped down from the chair and bounce-ran to Stone. “I decorated them all by myself!”

He instinctively picked the girl up and held her against his side as he carried her toward the table. “Well, then I guess I need to take a look at these cookies, don’t I?”

Jake nodded at Ezekiel in acknowledgement before he stopped in between Cassandra and Jenkins. He smiled warmly at Cassandra before placed a quick kiss on her lips and then he turned to face the tray of cookies and took a long moment to observe them.

Longer than strictly necessary in Ezekiel’s opinion. But then Cassandra and Jake had always liked to give Summer excessive acknowledgement for even the littlest of things. They were very focused on positive feedback and given what he knew of both their pasts he couldn’t really blame them. Plus, Ezekiel thought as he watched Summer give her father an anxious look, Stone seemed to have fun teasing the little munchkin.

“Well, that’s prettier than a Klimt,” he said finally.

To everyone’s surprise Summer’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “No, daddy! Not him!”

Cassandra’s hands flew to her mouth as she desperately tried not to laugh.

“I don’t like him,” Summer stated as she shook her head vigorously for emphasis.

Unlike Cassandra, Jake did laugh. He recovered quickly and grinned at the tiny red head in his arms. “Well, then who would you prefer to be compared to?” He asked.

“I like the painting with the big swirly stars,” she said with a nod as she leaned out of Jake’s arms a bit to glance at her cookies again. “That ones pretty and it makes me happy.”

“Well, darlin’,” he said as he placed a kiss on his daughter’s temple. “Then Van Gogh it is.”

“Yay!” She exclaimed as she wrapped her little arms around his neck and pressed a kiss too his cheek. “Now put me down. They need more red sprinkles!”

“Put me down…what?” Cassandra asked with a gentle expectant smile.

“Put me down, please,” Summer repeated apologetically.

Stone set the little girl down in the chair and then ruffled her curls. He then went to the fridge to grab a beer and addressed the room as he did so. “Burgers are on the grill. If you want cheese, you better speak now.”

“Me!” Summer yelled as she threw another handful of red sprinkles at her cookies.

Jake laughed and then smiled at her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ve got you covered. Anybody else?”

“Baird said she wanted cheese,” Cassandra told him.

“Extra cheese on mine,” Ezekiel answered with a smirk.

Jake gave him a knowing look. “Yeah, I kinda expected that. Jenkins?”

“None for me, thank you,” Jenkins said as he pulled out the broom and began sweeping up the sprinkles Summer had dropped on the floor. Ezekiel made his way over to Summer when Jake and Cassandra’s conversation moved on to the rest of this cook out they had planned. As an Australian he didn’t really concern himself with American Independence Day festivities. Besides, details had always been more their thing.

“How many sprinkles do these cookies need, Munchkin?” He asked as he leaned over her shoulder.

She shrugged. “As many as it takes to make them pretty.”

At this point these cookies were more sprinkles than chocolate chips. She grabbed another handful of sugar sprinkles and he grinned at her. “Still not pretty enough?”

“Nope,” she said as she popped the ‘p’ and tossed the sprinkles at the cookie sheet.

Ezekiel heard Jenkins sigh again as nearly half of them landed on the floor. He chuckled at her. “Do you need any help?”

“Sure!” She said happily as she turned her big blue eyes on him. “We need more stars!”

He nodded and grabbed the bin. “Aye aye, Captain.”

She giggled at his mock salute.

“Should I put them on the _star_ board side, Captain?”

She laughed again and he couldn’t believe what that little laugh made him feel. Geez, this wasn’t even his kid. How was it possible to like a kid, that wasn’t technically related to you, _this_ much?

“If I’m the captain, are you my first mate?” She asked with a tilted head. Her eyes widened suddenly and she hopped in her chair. “Oh! Are we pirates? Can we _please_ be pirates? I like pirates!”

He grinned at her. “You like pirates? What exactly do you think a pirate is?”

“They steal stuff and blow up other ships! And there’s maps and treasure and one of those long thingies you use to see far away and a parrot! This one time mommy and daddy took me to the science center and they had a parrot! It sad a bad word! Daddy tried to cover my ears but I still heard it,” she said excitedly. “I don’t know what it means but if they didn’t want me to hear it then it had to be bad.”

Ezekiel was really struggling not to laugh as he threw stars at the cookies. “So you like pirates?” he asked. “You like them because they steal stuff?”

She nodded and then beamed at him. “Like you! Right, Zeke? Does that make you a pirate? You have an accent like a pirate.”

“Hopefully I smell better than a pirate,” he told her.

“Don’t know, never met one,” she paused in her sprinkle throwing and then turned to sniff the air around him. “You smell like pizza. I thought we were having cheese burgers?”

“Why choose?” He asked her. “I like both, so I had both.”

Her eyes widened excitedly. “You can do that? You can have two dinners?”

“You can when you’re a grown up.”

She laughed at him again. It was a high-pitched joyful sound that pulled at every heartstring he never knew he had. “Silly!” She exclaimed. “You’re not a grown up!”

He laughed long and hard at that one. Because, honestly, she was right. He wasn’t a grown up and he never _ever_ wanted to be.

“Okay,” Cassandra said with a smirk as she held her hand out for Summer’s tub of sprinkles. “The cookies are beautiful. I think we can stop now. Besides, you need to wash up, you rascal.”

Summer’s eyes fell on the cookies that had been baked and finished several minutes before and she turned a pleading face to her mother. “Mommy, can I have a cookie?”

“A cookie?” Jake asked from the door. “Honey, we’re about to have dinner.”

Cassandra nodded in agreement. “That’s right. You don’t want to spoil your dinner.”

“But…Zeke had pizza before dinner!” She said with a pout as she pointed at Ezekiel.

Cassandra and Jake turned glares on him. Cassandra’s was more playful than angry but Stone…well he did not look pleased.

“Hey!” Ezekiel said as he gently knocked the little girl’s finger away. “I told you!” he then stopped and pointed at himself. “Grown up!”

Cassnadra laughed and rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah right, since when?” She reached out and took her daughter’s hand and helped her down from the chair. “Summer, you can have a cookie after dinner.”

She sighed and pouted. Her little voice sounded utterly crushed when she spoke again. “Okay.”

Cassandra hesitated and so did Jake. Jake was on his way back to the grill and he paused mid stride at the utterly heartbroken voice of his little girl and Cassandra bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brow. Both turned to look at the tray of fresh cookies and then met each other’s eyes across the kitchen.

Ezekiel would have laughed but if he did he’d ruin the moment. And he was thoroughly enjoying the moment. These two would of course be totally and completely destroyed by the hopeless voice of any child. But especially, _their_ child. Cassandra’s parents _always_ said no and Jake was a big softy to begin with. This kid could have everything she ever wanted if she played it right. They were both wrapped around her little finger. When the stares lingered too long Jake cleared his throat and pretended he hadn’t heard anything.

Cassandra cleared her throat and picked the girl up. “Come on, let’s go wash your hands.”

“You know what,” Ezekiel said before he could stop himself. “I’ll take her.”

Cassandra looked genuinely surprised. “You will?”

He nodded. “Yeah, you have to finish the side dishes anyway right? You keep cooking. I’ll take her.” He took the little girl from Cassandra and headed for the restroom down the hall.

“Mommy! Don’t forget to bake my cookies!” Summer yelled over his shoulder.

“Putting them in the oven as we speak, sweetie!” Cassandra called back to them as they left.

Ezekiel took Summer into the bathroom and set her down on the stool they’d brought to the Annex especially for her. Stone had helped her paint it. It was orange and covered in swirls of purples and pinks and yellows. None of the shapes looked like anything really. Stone had just let her paint whatever she was feeling at the time. He was really hoping this kid would turn out to love art. Although, Cassandra didn’t miss a beat with science and math either. They had a bright kid and they knew it.

Maybe, Ezekiel thought with a smirk, too bright.

“Munchkin,” Ezekiel said as he turned on the water for her and grabbed the bottle of liquid soap. “We need to talk.”

“Bout what?” She asked as she held out her hands for him to squeeze the soap into.

“What if I told you I had a way you could get not just one, but _two_ cookies before dinner?” He asked with half of a grin as he pumped the bottle and squeezed a drop of soap in her hands.

“Are we gonna be pirates again, First Mate Zeke?” She asked curiously with a toothy grin.

“Yes, we are, Captain Munchkin,” Ezekiel said with a laugh. “Listen, here’s what you do…”

* * *

 

Now Ezekiel just had to sit back and enjoy the show. He brought Summer back into the kitchen and then sat down at the table where Cassandra was making fruit salad. Summer sniffled sadly as she climbed into the chair next to Cassandra.

“Hey, kiddo,” Cassandra said as she immediately stopped what she was doing. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m hungry, mommy,” she said as she put her head down on the table and then turned her head to look at Cassandra with her big blue eyes. “Are the burgers ready yet?”

Cassandra bit her bottom lip again. A sure sign of weakness, Ezekiel thought with pride. “No, daddy’s still cooking those,” she told her. Cassandra’s eyes fell on the plate of cookies sitting across from them. “But how about a snack?”

“A snack?” Summer asked as she lifted her head off the table. “What kind of snack?”

“If you’re really that hungry then I can’t just let you starve can I?” Cassandra asked. Ezekiel sensed that question was more for Cassandra’s benefit than Summer’s. “And I suppose _one_ cookie wouldn’t hurt.”

Her eyes lit up and she clapped excitedly. “A _cookie_?”

“But just _one_ and it has to be our little secret,” Cassandra said in a whisper as she leaned toward her daughter. “Okay? Don’t tell daddy.”

Summer took two fingers and ran them across her lips before she nodded and tried to whisper. She wasn’t very good at it. She really just sounded hoarse. “My lips are zipped!” she told her mother happily.

Cassandra glanced over at Ezekiel. “You too, Jones.”

Ezekiel smirked at her. “Who me? Arguably, I’m the best secret keeper here. Besides, you’ve made me an accessory now. He’ll blame me as much as he’ll blame you. Probably more.”

Cassandra quickly slid the little girl a cookie and then got her a small glass of water.  “I’m going to take this salad to the picnic table outside. Are you going to be okay in here with Uncle Zeke?”

Ezekiel grimaced at the sound of that. He did not like being called an uncle. No. It was too settled. Too real.

“First Mate Zeke,” Summer said primly as she corrected her mother.

“What?” Cassandra asked.

“We’re pirates,” Summer said with a happy hum as she took a small bite of her cookie. “I’m the Captain.”

Cassandra gave him a curious look and he grinned at her. Did he mention he genuinely liked this kid? “It’s all true. She’s heartless. I never get any breaks or my share of the treasure. She’s a tyrant, really.”

“Oh,” Cassandra said with a nod. “Sounds fun.” She made her way to the door but stopped short and turned a motherly glance on both Summer and Ezekiel. “Just…don’t blow anything up, okay? No firing any pretend cannons or anything.”

“Okay,” Summer said with a shrug and a nod as she turned her attention back to her cookie.

Not even a minute after she left Ezekiel heard the familiar footfalls of Jacob Stone and immediately turned to Summer.

“Captain,” he whispered. “Hide the loot.”

She swallowed her bite of cookie and then set the cookie in her lap and covered it with her dress. Stone entered the kitchen with the cheese and opened the fridge to put it away.

“Hi, daddy!” Claire said brightly.

Stone turned and smiled at her. “Hey, squirt. “

“Can we take the door to Boston tonight?” She asked as she bounced excitedly in her seat. Ezekiel noted that she was careful to keep her lap as still as possible, though.

“What’s so special about Boston?” Ezekiel asked her with a furrowed brow. He genuinely wanted to know what angle the kid was playing. He was right. This kid was smart. Much too smart.

“The USS Constitution!” She yelled.

She pronounced it more perfectly than most adults. Wow, were they gonna be in trouble in about eight years.

“It sails through the water and turns around and it has these big sails and it’s _really old_. It’s so pretty! Daddy took me and mommy to see it last year! And I met Paul Revere!” She said as flailed her arms around in an animated fashion that looked so much like Cassandra it was genuinely a bit scary. Ezekiel glanced over at Stone and covered his smirk with his hand. His smile was so soft and warm and he was grinning bigger with each word Summer said. Oh yes, she had him wrapped around her teeny tiny finger. Between her gushing about history and her almost exact mirroring of Cassandra, Ezekiel was surprised Stone hadn’t _already_ given her the cookie.

“Um, Munchkin, isn’t Paul Revere dead?” Ezekiel asked after a moment.

“Well, _duh_ ,” she said as she rolled her eyes at him. Once again he was reminded of Cassandra. How many times had he seen eyes just like those do that exact same thing? “This was a man in a costume, but it was still _so cool_!” She turned the full focus of her unusually large baby blues on her father and pressed her hands together under her chin as if she were in prayer. “Can we go, daddy? Please can we go?”

“Darlin’, I’d love to, but they’re not sailing the ship around the Harbor this year. They’re fixin’ her up so she can keep on sailing,” he said hesitantly with a disappointed sigh. “Maybe next year, okay?”

“Aw!” she said as she stuck out her bottom lip and made a high-pitched whining sound. “But Zeke and I are pirates! We can’t be pirates without a ship!”

She covered her face in her hands and mumbled something in a truly sorrowful tone and then put her head back on the table.

Jake gave Ezekiel a confused glance and he shrugged with wide clueless eyes.

“She’s your kid,” Ezekiel whispered to him across the table. “I don’t know.”

Stone approached her slowly and knelt next to her chair.  As Stone approached she’d swiftly passed her first cookie off to Ezekiel to get it out of her lap. If he hadn’t felt her shoving it in his hand he wouldn’t have noticed she’d moved at all. Sneaky little bugger.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. How about if I get Flynn to show you the Nautilus instead? You and Ezekiel can be pirates with a submarine. Now that’s better than some old boat,” Stone said as he reached a hand out and patted her back soothingly.

“Ship,” Ezekiel corrected him.

“Not now, Jones,” Stone sneered at him through his smile that was focused on his daughter.

She lifted her head from the table, said nothing, and then hugged Stone tightly around the neck.

“Summer? How would that be? That okay, darlin’?” He asked again when she didn’t answer.

“Okay,” she said as she pulled back and smiled at him weakly. “Can I have a cookie?”

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief, ruffled her hair, and then said, “Sure, just don’t tell mommy, okay?”

“Okay!” She said brightly as she grabbed another cookie off the plate.

Both Summer and Ezekiel watched him go out of the corner of their eyes before she turned to him and took back her first cookie. She held them both up and beamed at him in pride.

“I got two cookies, I got two cookies, I got two cookies. Hey, hey, hey, hey!” She sang in a very chipper tone as she munched on the first one again.

“You’re good, kid. You’re gonna be an amazing thief one day,” Ezekiel said as he held out his fist to her and with a grin and raised eyebrows.

She met his first with her own to fist bump him and laughed. “No way! I’m gonna be a Librarian like mommy and daddy.”

“And me, right?” He asked her as he elbowed her playfully.

She nodded and took another bight of the cookie before she spoke with her mouth full. “And Flynn! Flynn let me pet Nessie once!” She told him. She paused and then winced. “Whoops! I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that.”

Oh, he would so be using that later, he thought as he filed it away for potential black mail. At least he knew he wasn’t the only one breaking her parents’ rules.

“Your secret’s safe with me, Munchkin.”

“You want one?” She asked as she offered him her other cookie.

He smiled warmly at her but shook his head. “Nah, you keep it. You worked hard for it.”

Cassandra and Stone unexpectedly entered the kitchen. Ezekiel wasn’t sure why he didn’t hear them. He knew the sound of their footfalls by now and usually he was always listening. In his line of work if you weren’t constantly aware of your surroundings then you got caught. The only explanation for their suddenly ability to sneak up on them was the happy little red headed child munching on a large home made chocolate chip cookie.

At first, Stone and Cassandra glanced worriedly at Summer and then nervously at each other and then they both realized exactly what they were seeing.

“Summer, do you have _two_ cookies?” Cassandra asked.

Summer gave them a sheepish and guilty glance before she shoved the first one in her mouth gulped down a sip of water and then took off with the second one in a flash of wild copper curls. Despite herself, when the moment of shock passed Cassandra laughed and gave Ezekiel a knowing glance.

“Teaching someone new tricks, were we?” She asked him in amusement.

“I didn’t teach her anything,” he said honestly. “Not a thing.”

“Jones,” Stone said with a glare and a huff. “I’m gonna—“

“Kill me, yeah yeah, I’ve heard it before,” he finished for him with a smug grin. “Still pretty sure I can outrun you though. So, no worries there. You’ve got a talented little grifter for a kid, mate. All I did was plant the idea in her head. She did the rest. I’d love to take the credit, really I would. You know, because I’m awesome. But I can’t. I just had a good seat for the show, that’s all.”

Stone glared at him and then turned to his wife. “Talk to him, will ya? I don’t need _him_ teaching her how to double cross us. I’m gonna go track down that little con artist of ours.”

“Good luck,” Cassandra said with a chuckle as she watched him go. “He taught her how to hide too!” She yelled to his retreating back. “Ages ago! She’s got a talent for it!”

“Jones!” He heard Stone bellow angrily as he stomped away from the kitchen.

“Believe it or not, teaching her how to hide was for safety,” Ezekiel said with an almost apologetic smile.

Cassandra gave him half of a smile as she sat down next to him and sighed. “I know.” She laughed again this time and didn’t restrain herself. Her laughter went on for what felt like ages before she linked her arm through his and leaned back in her chair. “I know I should be furious with you, but I keep seeing Summer’s face when she realized she’d been caught red handed and I can’t stop laughing. And the way she took off—oh god, are _we_ going to be in trouble in a few years. She’s going to get into _everything_. And with all the things we have sitting around here the trouble she gets into could actually be apocalyptic.”

“She’s scary smart that kid of yours,” Ezekiel admitted with a smile. “Wait,” he said as he suddenly gave her a very dumbstruck glance. “That ‘we’ you just talked about, you said that differently than when you talk about you and Stone.”

“That’s because I wasn’t just talking about me and Stone,” she told him with a soft smile. “You were included in that ‘we’. Along with Jenkins, Flynn, and Eve. You’re her family now too.”

That  ‘too real’ feeling from earlier was back. Only this time it didn’t worry him. He’d never really been a part of a family. Not for very long anyway. He understood why it made him nervous now too. People depended on him. People cared about him. People included him in silly things like Fourth of July cookouts and little girl’s birthday parties and cookie baking. He was a part of something bigger than himself. He never really thought that would happen for him. Yet, somehow it had.

“ _Ms. Cillian_ ,” Jenkins said sternly as he entered the kitchen with Summer wrapped tightly around his leg. “I believe I found something that belongs to you. Either that or I have a sudden red headed giggling growth on my leg.”

As if on cue, Summer’s giggle filled the room, barely muffled by the rushed chewing of a chocolate chip cookie. The sound tugged at those heartstrings that he could have sworn were broken years ago and for the first time, he realized just how _lucky_ he truly was.

He’d _finally_ found a family he could claim as his own. Sure, it was a little weird and mostly crazy but this was where he belonged. This was home.


End file.
